Young Nathan Holland is set to be around the first team at West Ham a little bit more often after impressing Manuel Pellegrini during the pre-season tour to Switzerland.

Football.London understands there are now no plans to allow Holland to be loaned away from the club this season, such is how impressive he has been in Bad Ragaz over the past 11 days.

Hammers manager Pellegrini was given a dossier on each U23 and U18 player when he arrived at the club and spoke about integrating them into the first team as often as he could and it seems Holland is one of the leading candidates, along with Declan Rice who is already fairly established in the first team.

Holland, still only 20, played the first 45 minutes of the 3-2 pre-season friendly defeat to FC Winterthur last weekend and was by far one of the standout players on display in Pellegrini's first game in charge.

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The winger has also had an excellent season and a bit with the U23s since signing from Everton back in 2017 when he penned a three-and-a-half-year deal in the capital. That is despite missing a sizeable chunk of the last campaign with a hamstring tear picked up when he was drafted into first team training under David Moyes.

West Ham youngster Nathan Holland (Image: West Ham United)

Holland himself has said he wants a senior place this season under Pellegrini, saying: "I want to play for West Ham and I want to play at London Stadium. I've just got to keep working hard, day in and day out, and see what happens. Hopefully I will get my chance."

"He's [Pellegrini] a brilliant manager. He definitely knows his stuff, and I'm enjoying learning from him.

"He's very big on attacking football but he also knows that we need to be strong when it comes to defending, so he's been enabling us to do that and given us a platform to get even better. He's brought in a new style and I think we've adapted to it quite quickly."

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Other U23s are being considered for loan deals away from the club to continue their development, including the likes of Marcus Browne, Toni Martinez, Martin Samuelsen, Josh Pask and Connor Coventry though the final decision will ultimately lie with Pellegrini once the squad returns from Switzerland on Friday.

Holland however has seemingly done more than enough to be considered for sticking around at Rush Green for the forseeable future.

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